They’re missing Opportunity Center clients
“At the Opportunity Center, we help adults with disabilities become as independent as possible in their lives and in their communities.
“Since we closed in March because of the coronavirus, I’ve been calling parents to check up on our clients as much as possible. The other day I was missing them so much that I said to the staff, ‘Y’all, we should do drive-bys. Let’s make some signs and go see everybody.’ We’re used to seeing them every single day. They need to know how much we really miss them and that we’re thinking about them.
“So we’re trying to drive by different people’s homes at least once a week. We’re trying to visit as many as we can. We drive up in our van, honk the horn, and come out holding our signs and yelling for them.
“The ones we’ve seen so far have been super excited. We keep our distance. We want eveybody to remain safe. But a lot of our clients want to hug. One even chased me down the driveway. I had to say, ‘Sorry, baby, but you can’t hug me.’ My natural instinct is to hug them, so that’s been hard for me, too.
“Many of them don’t fully comprehend what’s going on, and why they can’t come to the center like usual. They’re ready to come back, to get back to work. I’m not sure when that’s going to happen and how things may have to change in the future, so we’ll have to see. I just know that I miss interacting with them. It’s like they’re my kids. We really do miss them a lot.”
— Kim Frederick-Brown
Kim is director of the Opportunity Center, a program at Bay Area Rehabilitation Center in Baytown.
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